1948 Chrysler Town & Country convertible owned by Blenus Wright.

    The enemy of most cars is rust, but owners of woodies had to fear dry rot as well as the dreaded tinworm.

    The solution was to produce cars like the Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country convertible of 1983-86 featured here last week, with faux wood trim to make it resemble the “real” T&Cs from 1946-48.

     But how much wood went into constructing those classic Chryslers from the 1940s?

    The answer is more than you’d expect, but not as much as you may have thought.

    Confusing? Well, here’s the deal.

    The B-pillars, doors, rear quarters and trunk lids of vintage T&Cs were made of white ash – about 500 lbs. worth. But by 1947 the darker mahogany inserts had been changed from plywood veneer to Di-Noc, a synthetic material developed by 3M. And that makes their restoration a little trickier than most. In fact, noted restorer Doug Greer, of Cobourg, Ont., says a 1948 Town & Country convertible recently completed in his shop is “the most labour-intensive car I’ve ever done.”

    Owner Blenus Wright bought the car in 2005 and Greer began a 42-month restoration in March, 2007. Wright drove it for the first time on Aug. 6 this year and the next day it made its debut at the Antique and Classic Car Club of Canada’s Concours d’Elegance in Port Hope, Ont., winning a first place with 98.4 points (out of 100) and the Peer Choice trophy as selected by fellow participants.

    Although Wright bought the car from a woody collector in Mineola , N.Y., it spent most of its life in North Carolina, which accounts for the fact that about 50% of the wood was still usable.

    New lumber was hand-picked by master craftsman Terry Barker of Cobourg from air-dried ash at a small lumber mill in Northern Ontario. Greer estimates that Barker spent at least 400 hours restoring and crafting new wood pieces, which must fit snugly together using finger joints. It then was given “between 15 and 20 coats of Spar urethane,” which Greer says is “much more user friendly than the original varnish.” Only the last three coats were sprayed, the others each were applied with a brush and then sanded.

    After blasting and straightening the steel skins for the doors, etc. Greer shipped them to Dennis Bickford’s Vintage Woodworks in Iola, Wis. There, thin sheets of Di-Noc film were vacuum epoxied to the steel and stained to resemble Honduras mahogany.

    “Dennis is the only one doing this kind of work and without his help we couldn’t have done this car,” says Greer.

    The owner wanted his car to be an authentic Chrysler colour called Sumac Red. Luckily for Greer, he found someone in Alberta with part of a dash from a 1948 T&C sedan that had been painted that colour at the factory. It was sent east and new Sumac Red paint mixed to match.

    The interior is “highlander plaid” from a new old stock roll found at a Chrysler dealership in the U.S. still in its original tube.

    Under that long hood is a 323.5 cubic inch Chrysler straight 8 producing 140 hp and attached to a 4-speed Fluid Drive semi-automatic transmission. This combination, plus the weight of the car, makes for very stately acceleration.

    Back in the day, these cars were virtually hand built. The woodwork was done by Pekin Wood Products of Helena, Arkansas and then shipped to Chrysler’s Jefferson Avenue plant in Detroit where everything came together. When new, a 1948 Town & Country convertible cost $3,420 and was Chrysler’s most expensive model. Only about 200 survive out of 3,309 made that year.

    One of the few postwar cars recognized as a true classic by the Classic Car Club of America, a freshly restored 1946-48 T&C convertible now sells in the $225,000-$250,000 range.

 Write to Glen at glenwoodcock@canoemail.com